Working during the summer after high school graduation at Finkelstein's was Noella's first job before entering nursing school. She had no work or mill experience and no training and was put on "piece work". Seamstress' had boxes by their sewing machines, sewing collars or cuffs, etc. After a box was completed, a sticker on sheet was used to track amount of work completed. Jackets went on hangars or overhead pipes to be inspected and if not perfect, returned to be redone
Marie left school in the eight grade, she always said " I am good with my hands, not so much with the books." She always lived in the Wanshuck area in Providence except for a 20 year period after marriage when they lived in Foxpoint. They returned to Wanshuck in the 60's and she died there in 1996. She always walked to work at the various mills in the neighborhood. She did go back to work after I was born in 1943, my Nana was with us and she watched me. The last year she worked was 1947 for a short time after the birth of my brother.
son-in-law of owner; married Oct. 9, 1937 to Alberta Guerin at St. Ann's Church, Woonsocket, R'I'; father of two sons, Jean and Roger; died at early age of 45.
Market Square continues to be used as a municipal parking lot, with paving stones that denote where the trenches that supplied water to the city's textile mills once ran. It is also home to a replica of the tower of the Ballou Mill.
By the 1950s, the textile industry was in serious decline. The destruction caused by the Woonsocket Falls flooding in 1955 caused the demise of the mills in the adjacent Market Square.
In 1960, the city of Woonsocket demolished all the buildings in Market Square and created a municipal parking lot.
Images courtesy of the Harris Public Library
The turn of the century would redefine the mills in the Market Square area. In 1912, Otto Timme of The Woonsocket Falls Mill Company bought the Ballou Mill from the Rhode Island Finishing Co. and remodeled the building so that it was able to produce plushes. In 1915, the company also installed a dyeing and finishing department.
After 1880, the Ballou Mill was purchased and used by a number of owners, including James P. and Edgar K. Ray and The Rhode Island Dyeing and Finishing Co.
The Harris Mill was no longer in operation by 1870 since Harris had moved most of his operation to Main Street. In 1890 Harris Mill #1 was sold to the Mowry Grist Mill Co, which had purchased Arnold’s Grist Mill property in 1862. The two mills were consolidated and would continue operations until 1919.
In 1862 the Lyman Mill was sold to J.P. and J.G. Ray. Its operations continued until the mid-1890s.
Four mills defined this area, known as Market Square, in the 19th century: Ballou Mill, Harris Mill #1, Mowry Grist Mill and the Lyman Mill.
As early as 1698, an ironworks and sawmill were located on the western edge of the Market Square area along the Blackstone River. The sawmill was built by the sons of Richard Arnold, one of Woonsocket’s earliest settlers, while the forge was located downstream from the sawmill. A flood in 1807 destroyed the forge.
In 1943 Therese Ricard took a job working at the U.S. Rubber Company in their annex building located on the corner of Social and Worrall streets in Woonsocket. Therese was 16 years old when she started work in the mill. She worked the student shift, after school from 3pm-7pm. Her job was to paste and cement big rubber tubes that would be folded in different ways in order that the would fit inside the decoy rubber tank turrets. These rubber tanks were called "Targets" and were painted in such a way so they looked as if they had a shadow.
